Nostalgia! ^_^

Yesterday I finally found my copy of Ha'Keves Ha'Shisha'Asar (The Sixteenth Lamb) - which is one of the staple children song albums of my childhood.

It is made out of AWESOME WIN!!! :D:D:D

Because when you get someone like Yehonatan Geffen to write the Lyrics, Yoni Rechter to do most of the compostions and Gidi Gov, David Broza and Yehudit Ravitz to sing you get a combination of AWESOME WIN!!! :D:D:D

I often morn the fact that children music - unlike children books - hardly ever appeals to adults. There are so many books out there marketed at children which any adult can pick up and read and enjoy fully as an adult because it is design to appeal to both audiences. In fact - I would argue that a truly good children book should always have a point of appeal for grown ups - be it a novel, poetry or even a picture book (goddess knows I have a massive fetish for clever children picture books!) .

I find it less so with music (children animated movies aside - Walt Disney studios DO indeed make some beautiful songs ... but I am talking about music written for the sake of music released on CD for young listeners). True - I will whistle a nursery Rhyme and sing a children song with my sons but I will not put it in my CD player and listen to it out of sheer joy, marvelling at the composition, the voices, the harmonies, the way the guitar picks up RIGHT THERE.

This album is my all time exception. It was even at the time of its printing - extremely popular with adults and it is easy for me to see why. It is just beautiful. The lyrics are clever children songs - written from a child perspective with a child observation often (as this IS Yehonatan Geffen) with an adult slant and humour.

This one is about a child going to the supermarket with his mum in the afternoon and comments about how unpleasant it is to see his kindergarten closed :

"The swings stands
Between the tall trees
And the flower
So limp and colourless
Because our Kindergarten is closed.

The building blocks fall asleep, tidy in the basket
And there are no children to build them into a tower

There is no nanny there to say
What allowed and what is not
And all the books are in order on the shelf
Because no one is their to listen to a story."

Simple - but so REAL.

And of course this is Israel... and we can't help but taking the piss out of stuff we love - so here is the gang (Yoni Rechter playing on a car registration number, Gidi Gove Next to him, Yehudit Ravitz and David Broza on the other side - ALL LOOKING SO YOUNG!!!... AND I REMEMBER THEM THIS WAY!!! *feels old*)
They sing this in a style of a TV political debate which... as it IS Israel... can get... quite... heated ^^;;.




Gidi Gov is also a genius comedian - so no wonder he keeps a straight face.

I uploaded 3 MP3 files from my album. It was hard to choose but I decided on:

1)The opening song- How Is a Song Born?

"How is a song born?
Like Laughter
It starts inside
Then rolls out

How is a song born/
Like a baby
At the begining it hurt
And then it comes out
And everyone is happy
And duddenly
How wonderfull
It walks on his own!"

2)David Broza singing about thunder and light - the lyrics for this are very basic but he composed this song and his guitar playing is divine and glorious!

3) The most beautiful girl in Kidergarten - this is sung by Yehudit Ravitz whose voice is stunning and very unique and husky and melty :D:D:D

"When she smile - I also smile
And when she is sad - I don't understand
How can you be sad
When you are the most beautiful girl in kindergarten?"

For a limited time only THEY ARE HERE!



Aaaah - childhood ... I don't EVER fucking want to experience you again! Good thing that I have the music on CD XD.